Respect is more than holding open the car door for you and pulling out your chair at restaurants. It’s more than walking up to your front stoop to pick you up for a date instead of honking his horn from the driveway.

Respect is more than saying please and thank you, sir and ma’am. It’s more than practicing good manners at the dinner table and treating waiters with kindness.

Respect is showing up to your mother’s house with flowers during the holidays. It’s offering to pick you up and drive when he knows you’re tired. It’s calling you instead of texting when you have to talk about something serious.

Respect is sending a text when he knows he’s going to be late, so you don’t sit up wondering where he is or if you did something to make him upset. It’s keeping you in the loop, because you’re an important part of his life and you deserve to know what’s going on.

Respect is listening to your side of an argument, even if he completely disagrees with it. It’s letting you speak your mind instead of screaming over you, telling you that you’re wrong. It’s communication and compromise.

Respect is holding back from saying something cruel in the middle of a fight. It’s refusing to call you a waste of space, even though he’s never been this pissed at you before. It’s treating you like an actual human being, regardless of the situation.

Respect is being honest with you, even when the truth hurts. It’s telling you what happened, even if you’re not going to like what you hear. It’s being completely truthful with you — no exceptions.

It’s doing little things that mean the world.
Respect is just as important as love in any relationship, because it shows how much a person cares about your wellbeing, about your happiness.

And I add, respect is supporting you. It is banishing your insecurities by not doing things that will cause you to doubt. Respect is reassuring you in words and in actions. It is building your confidence by reminding you that you are loved and beautiful, worthy of his loyalty. It is not simply reminding you of the years he stayed with you but in the love and respect he showed you during those years. It is listening to your fears and tears. Respect is telling the flirtatious temptations that he has a girlfriend who he values, loves and respects enough to quit joking around with the flirts and sending them the wrong signals.

It is treating you as God would treat His daughter.

And being respected comes with the responsibility of also respecting and trusting him. It is keeping the faith in him and understanding him. Because wanting to be respected starts with respecting yourself and others.

Respecting each other above all: that is God’s hope for us.

(This is a repost from thoughtcatalog.com as written by Holly Riordan. Some paragraphs were taken out mainly to make it suitable for this blog’s content. All credits to the writer. This is simply a thought that I think needs to be shared because I wouldn’t have said it any better. And I added a little of my thoughts into this as well. This is for those who pray for stronger relationships that seek to glorify God above all.)

Like this:

It’s been a long while. It’s been 2193 days to be exact. I can only count the days and the memories that came with it. No, I cannot hold it or wrap it beautifully in a box. It simply wouldn’t fit. I can only disrupt its ephemerality with ink and paper, where we can open it at a time when our failing ears hold thick glasses that sit on our wrinkled noses. Then, it shall live beyond the lifetime that has been set for us-for our generations that are yet to be, for eons more and days 2193.

In the mean time, I would like to look back on how the Lord has graciously sustained us.

Before 2193

It started with a pre-college covenant I made with God 11 years ago: first, to keep love at bay until after college, which I did; and second, to choose he who would first dare to face my Papa courageously, which you did. You waited for two good years. Thank you for showcasing your skills with grating coconuts manually just so we could make biko, then! Haha! Papa must have been impressed. *cough cough

The Start of the 2193

You asked. At first I was afraid, but, with fervent prayers and utter trust in God’s plans, I agreed to a love that kept God first.

2011: Our early morning devotional at our favorite place in MVC: Jubilee Park.

First 365 Days

We were ready to conquer the world, fresh from College Graduation and licensure examination. We left home to fulfill our dreams. Even though at first it seemed impossible, we believed and God provided! It was a tough year for us, but God saw us through.

2012: Post-interview at UERM. My first time to be VERY far away from home. We were ready to conquer!

731 days after…

Med school happened. We struggled, and perhaps crawled our way through the ups and downs. But we both grew in faith and love. And hope flickered, but it kept burning still, and that’s what mattered.

1096 days later…

We kept conquering mountains. They kept coming back higher! But God never failed us. You stayed, held my hand and I am grateful all the more.

2014: Conquering Mt. Batulao (above) and Malingon/Twin Falls (below)

Through 1461 days…

This was a year of eating and studying and endless duties as clerks, the lowest in the hospital’s food chain. We got tired, burned out, but we got to the end happy, satisfied and contented with what we have achieved – TOGETHER.

2015: #tandemdEats We took our time off from our daily duties whenever we were free. You kept my stomach and my heart full to the brim. 🙂

1826 days more…

This was a year of victory, of reaping the seeds we have sowed. And God continued to write our story for us. Amazing how the Lord has brought us together since day 1 up until we got our Doctor of Medicine degree. He is faithful indeed!

2193 days later…

The people we have become through those years, we owe to our family and friends, patients and mentors. And the story we have is one that God keeps on writing. And it is my prayer that God continues to write for us, as he did for the past 2193 days and for eons more…

Thank you for sticking around, Aya. For choosing to tolerate me and my shortcomings for the past 2193 days. I love you! Happy 6th-year Anniversary. May we keep God our first, our last and in everything. ❤❤❤

Like this:

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”

Love.

It all began on March 30, 2011. This journey that is now Sixty Eight Months old today – it wasn’t without storms, nor was it without sunshine. But all these, we believe, have been beautifully orchestrated into a one-of-a-kind love story that’s always under construction, written by the Lord who saw us to be better as #tandemd together.

Love.

It began way before March 30, 2011, way before we even met. It began with GOD, for love is of God. And no other love is greater than His!

Like this:

I Peter 4:8“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”Has anyone ever caused you to be so depressed simply by how deeply they have wronged you? Have you ever come to the point when it has been so hard to forgive especially when you know that the person continues to do or say things that hurt you?

Well, to forgive isn’t easy, especially when all that you think of are nothing but the wrong things that the person has caused you to suffer.

But when you cease to look at the hurts and instead focus your eyes on Him who gives comfort, then nothing can ever cause you to be hopeless, to be crestfallen.

All you have to do is shift your focus on things that will make you and your day feel lighter and brighter.

You are loved by God, and to experience that love is enough to compel you to forgive and live fully in the service of the Lord!